More interesting than I had imagined when I first looked at the title. learned alot about Richmond at the end of the war, the ridiculous raid to try and free prisons from Libbey and Belle Isle, the infamous supposed papers recovered from the body of Col. Dahlgren after his death. Also some chapters on the so-called "Northwest Conspiracy" to disrupt midwest Northern cities, using prisoners and Copperheads. It came to nothing of course, as did any objective which counted on Copperheads for support. All talk, no action. No anseres of course, but a surprisingly balanced treatment of the last year diplomatically. ( )

Col. Ulrich Dahlgren lead a portion of a Federal cavalry raid on Richmond designed to free POWs from Belle Island and Libby Prison. The raid didn't go so well for the Yankees and Dahlgren was killed. Papers were recovered from his body which indicated that in addition to freeing POWs the purpose of the raid had also been the assassination of President Davis and his cabinet. Debate about the authenticity of the papers began immediately and has continued until today. Schultz comes down on the side of forgery. Other noted Civil War historians, Stephen Sears comes to mind, believe the papers were genuine. As the papers disappered shortly after the war, we will probably never know.

This was the first book length examination of the raid since the 1950s. Schultz does a good job documenting the raid. He also discusses Confederate attempts to conduct irregular warfare against civilian _targets in the North. Well worth reading. ( )

I liked the writing style and felt that this book was informative, however I was a bit upset in the fact that I didn't feel as if this book delivered what it promised. ( )

DEN